The day has come… our first horse show! The show was at my barn, so there was no shipping. The show was the most casual I’ve ever done- it was a fun, relaxed schooling show. In my youth, my trainers always made me wear the show coat even at the most informal shows (and on the hottest days!) but now that I’m doing my own thing, I dressed casually with breeches and a vest :^)

Warmup was great- I knew our classes would take a lot of mental and physical effort for Wizard so we kept it short and sweet. I did a lot of walking, getting him used to the weaving and circling of all the horses. We then trotted, working on stretching and making contact with the bit. I only did one spin at the canter in each direction and he (gasp!) picked up the correct lead each time.

I had a very nice support group at the show, including my mom (also photographer and groom), my friend Christie, and my dad later in the day.

So here’s a rundown of our classes and how we did…

Adult Rider- 18yrs or older. English or Western.W/T Eq Placed 6th. Wizard bounced around quite a bit during his walk-to-trot transitions, but was great with the horse traffic.W/T/C Eq Placed 6th. They asked for a canter from a walk (oh, hm, we’ve never done that before!). No time like the present, and Wizard bounced into a canter from the walk. Not the prettiest transition, but he had a fair amount of impulsion from the show energy and it was pretty decent.W/T/C Pleasure Our best class (according to the judge). Placed 4th.

Beginner Horse – Open to horses and ponies in their first or second year of showing.W/T Placed 5th. I was much more relaxed and Wizard mirrored me.W/T/C (canter individually) Did not place. Wizard picked up the wrong lead and leapt around a little in the first few strides of the canter. But once he settled, his canter was nice. Problem was, the judge was only watching horses in one spot on the rail and we tended to be pretty awkward in that spot. Wizard was getting a little grouchy around the other horses. I think he was hitting his threshold for attention span. If the last class was not over fences, I would have called it a day. I was proud of his performance in the class but the class was large and in the grand scheme of things, it was probably not that pretty.W/T Hack with two cross rails Placed 5th. Our best performance (according to me). The judge made a comment about a rider who cantered the cross rails so I made sure to really bring Wizard down to a serious trot between the fences. Wizard was thrilled to jump and I was thrilled with his performance.

In all, it was a wonderful first show. I did not fall off or get otherwise disqualified, and Wizard performed admirably. I’m quite proud of him- it was fun to show off the results of all our hard work.